Oh GPS, I used to love you….

We had a Garmin but gave it to Mike’s daughter when we bought our new Ram in December. It came with in-dash sat-nav. Mike hadn’t been thrilled with the Garmin’s method of giving directions anyway. He missed turns all the time and blamed it on the device. I just think he can’t follow a GPS…. But he’d been conditioned to follow Apple maps on his iPhone which still puzzles me that the app didn’t direct him into a lake on occasion….

It seems Mike gets along better with “Janice”, our Ram GPS system. We named her so because it seemed a fitting name for a pushy know-it-all. (Apologies if you are a Janice and are not, in fact, pushy and a know-it-all.) I now call her “Janet” because, although I couldn’t put my finger on it when we first got the truck, I realize the voice and method of direction-giving reminds me of a Janet from my past. I’ll leave it at that.

Janet/ Janice usually is pretty good as far as sat-navs go. But as anyone who’s ever used a GPS system knows, there are always hiccups in the system. We found a doozy around Fort Lauderdale on I-95. I tell you this to possibly avoid the same issues.

Imagine a “spaghetti junction” and then knock it down a degree or two. Several sweeping sections of interstate and highways intermingling in one place. It’s Florida, so it’s not built skyscraper high like in Texas. But lots of “Right lane for I-95S” then that lane splits into 95S and a local highway. Sort of confusing. But not if you have sat-nav, right??!

Unless it appears the state of Florida has done an immense amount of construction and renamed/rerouted/relabled a bunch of exits and your GPS has no idea any of this has occurred.

You know when your GPS tells you to follow 95S (even though that logically doesn’t seem right based on where you’re headed) because it’s next direction is to “stay left onto 95 NORTH!” Um, 95N has it’s own exit now and unless I jump an overpass with this truck AND MY FIFTH WHEEL, we just missed the exit.

It’s one thing if this type of hiccup happens once. It’s a freaking comedy when you can’t get where you’re going because direction after direction is incorrect. AND you’re pulling a 5th wheel. As you know, there is no last-minute lane changing to grab the correct exit when hauling your rig. So we were back and forth, north then south, up and down I-95. Finally we just gave up and kept driving.

Where were we headed? To Seminole Casino Coconut Grove (or some such place.)

Where did we end up? Seminole Hard Rock Casino – because we passed it on the highway, gave up and just went there instead. It worked. Free overnight parking. (But not really “free” after all the money we spent at restaurants and bars. Oh, we may have gambled away a whole $15…..)

So, why didn’t I pull out my map and navigate? Simply because all I have is an atlas. And we’re in no hurry. It was quite the joke after a while. All a day in the life of RVing!

Adventure: Julie and Michael Style

We fell in love while running and drinkin' beer. Our aversion to boredom and lake effect snow put us in a truck, hauling our house on wheels across the United States. Click that "About Julie and Michael" button, or choose from menu at top right to read the rest of our story.